Synthetically enlarged camera aperture

ABSTRACT

Methods for obtaining a shallow depth of field effect (DOF) and improved signal-to-noise (SNR) in an image through synthetically increase the camera aperture of a compact camera using at least one actuator included in such a camera for other known purposes, for example for providing optical image stabilization (OIS). The synthetically enlarged camera aperture enables to take a plurality of images at different aperture positions. The plurality of images is processed into an image with shallow DOF and improved SNR.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This is a continuation application from U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/121,049 filed Sep. 4, 2018 (now allowed), and is related to and claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional patent application 62/567,287 filed Oct. 3, 2017, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

FIELD

Embodiments disclosed herein relate in general to digital cameras, and in particular to miniature folded and non-folded digital cameras.

BACKGROUND

Compact cameras, such as those that are incorporated in smartphones, have typically small apertures with a size of a few millimeters (mm) (e.g. 1-5 mm). The relatively small zo aperture of the camera (compared with cameras with larger aperture) causes at least the following handicaps:

a) the amount of light that can be absorbed by the camera image sensor in a given period of time is limited. This results in poor signal to noise ratio (SNR) ratio when capturing an image in low light situations; and

b) the small aperture, when coupled with a relatively short focal length (e.g. 3-15 mm) due to the physical dimensions of the camera, causes a relatively wide depth of field (DOF). This is contrary to the shallow DOF or “bokeh” effect that is a sought-after property in smartphone devices. Note that “shallow DOF” and “bokeh” are used herein interchangeably.

In known art, the bokeh effect is achieved with a dual-camera setup, by calculating a depth map from two camera images obtained from two separate cameras and by digitally blurring the images according to the depth map.

Compact cameras in smartphones and other hand-held personal electronic devices have different types of actuators. In an example, they often have an optical image stabilization (OIS) actuator that can move the lens barrel (or simply the “lens”) of the camera in a plane parallel to the image sensor plane. In folded cameras, in which an optical path from an object to be photographed is folded toward the image sensor by an optical path folding element (OPFE), for example a prism, OIS is known to be achieved by shifting the lens barrel laterally, in parallel to the sensor plane, or by tilting the prism (see for example co-owned published international patent application WO2016166730).

SUMMARY

In the contexts of the following disclosure, DOF is defined as the distance (in meters, cm, etc.) around the plane of focus (POF) in which objects appear acceptably sharp in an image. A shallow DOF is such that the distance is small (e.g. less than 20% of the object distance from the camera) and a wide DOF is such that the distance is large (e.g. more than 30% of the object distance from the camera).

In various exemplary embodiments, there are provided methods for synthetically enlarging a camera aperture and for obtaining shallow DOF effects in folded and non-folded (also referred to as “upright”, “straight”, standing” or “vertical”) compact cameras using dedicated and/or existing actuators, and in particular OIS actuators included in such cameras. The miniature cameras for example in camera incorporated in smartphones, tablet computers, laptop computer, smart televisions, smart home assistant devices, drones, baby monitors, video conference rooms, surveillance cameras, cars, robots and other personalized electronic devices. Known OIS actuators, for example similar to those disclosed in co-owned published international patent application WO2016166730 (folded case) and see for example co-owned international patent application WO20160156996 (non-folded case), may be “modified” by increasing the size and/or length of their magnets and/or coils and/or rails to enable longer movement range (e.g. up to about ±2 mm) of elements in folded and non-folded compact cameras. Henceforth, such OIS actuators will be referred to as “modified OIS actuators”.

The following description refers to relative movements of one camera element (for example the lens, prism, or both) vs. another camera element (for example the image sensor) in an exemplary orthogonal XYZ coordinate system. The exemplary coordinate system is for reference and for understanding inventive features disclosed herein, and should not be considered limiting.

The new use of dedicated and/or existing camera actuators in general and OIS actuators (regular or modified) in particular, coupled with an image acquisition system and a post-processing algorithm, can synthetically increase the size of the aperture, providing better signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and a shallower DOF. The term “synthetically increasing” or “synthetically enlarging” as applied herein to a camera aperture refers to the camera aperture size being effectively (but not physically) increased by capturing different (e.g. a plurality N of) images with the aperture in (N) different positions. The camera aperture is shifted laterally relative to the sensor by a significant amount (for example by a few mm) and several images are captured, each with the aperture located in a different position relative to the sensor. To clarify, the physical aperture size remains constant. Then, by aligning all captured images with respect to a certain in-focus object at a certain distance from the camera and by averaging them, objects outside the plane of focus will blur due to the parallax effect, thereby providing a shallow DOF effect. In some embodiments, the modifications to the OIS actuators to obtain modified OIS actuators enable large enough movement of the aperture of the optical system relative to the original position, so that the resulting parallax effect will be significant, i.e. shallower DOF by 10%, 20% or even 50% from the DOF of a single frame.

In exemplary embodiments there is provided a method comprising providing a camera that includes a camera aperture, a lens having a lens optical axis, an image sensor and an actuator, and operating the at least one actuator to synthetically enlarge the camera aperture to obtain a shallow DOF effect and improved SNR in an image formed from a plurality of images obtained with the image sensor.

In some exemplary embodiments, the actuator is an OIS actuator.

In some exemplary embodiments, the actuator is a modified OIS actuator with an extended actuation range. The extended actuation range may be a range of up to ±2 mm, and more specifically between ±1-2 mm.

In an exemplary embodiment, the operating the actuator to synthetically enlarge the camera aperture includes operating the actuator to move the camera aperture to a plurality of positions, wherein each of the plurality of images is obtained in a respective camera aperture position.

In an exemplary embodiment, the operating the actuator to synthetically enlarge the camera aperture includes operating the actuator to move the lens relative to the image sensor in a first direction substantially perpendicular to the lens optical axis.

In an exemplary embodiment, the operating the actuator to synthetically enlarge the camera aperture includes operating the actuator to move the lens relative to the image sensor in a second direction substantially perpendicular to the lens optical axis, wherein the second direction is not parallel to the first direction.

In some exemplary embodiments, the first and second directions are orthogonal to each other.

In some exemplary embodiments, the camera is a non-folded camera.

In some exemplary embodiments, the camera is a folded camera.

In an exemplary embodiment, the camera is a folded camera that further includes an optical path folding element (OPFE) that folds light from a first optical axis to the lens optical axis.

In an exemplary embodiment in which the camera is folded the operating the actuator to synthetically enlarge the camera aperture includes operating the actuator to move the camera aperture to a plurality of positions, wherein each of the plurality of images is obtained in a respective camera aperture position.

In an exemplary embodiment in which the camera is folded, the operating the actuator to synthetically enlarge the camera aperture includes operating the actuator to move the lens relative to the image sensor in a first direction substantially perpendicular to the lens optical axis.

In an exemplary embodiment in which the camera is folded, the operating the actuator to synthetically enlarge the camera aperture includes operating the actuator to move the lens relative to the image sensor in a second direction substantially perpendicular to the lens optical axis, wherein the second direction is not parallel to the first direction.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Aspects, embodiments and features disclosed herein will become apparent from the following detailed description when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1A shows an aperture and lens barrel centered relative to an image sensor in a non-folded camera in (a) top view and (b) side view;

FIG. 1B shows the aperture and lens barrel of FIG. 1A after a lateral shift in a first direction relative to the image sensor in (a) top view and (b) side view;

FIG. 1C shows the aperture and lens barrel of FIG. 1A after a lateral shift in a second direction orthogonal to the first direction relative to the image sensor in (a) top view and (b) side view;

FIG. 2A shows an exemplary embodiment of a folded camera disclosed herein in (a) top view and (b) side view;

FIG. 2B shows the aperture, prism and lens barrel of the camera of FIG. 2A after a lateral shift of the lens in a first direction relative to the image sensor in (a) top view and (b) side view;

FIG. 2C shows the aperture, prism and lens barrel of the camera of FIG. 2A after a shift of the prism in a second direction orthogonal to the first direction relative to the image sensor in (a) top view and (b) side view;

FIG. 2D shows the aperture, prism and the lens barrel of the camera of FIG. 2A after a shift of the lens in a second direction orthogonal to the first direction relative to the image sensor in (a) top view and (b) side view;

FIG. 3A shows schematically an example of 5 possible positions of the camera aperture relative to the image sensor, corresponding to 5 different frames captured by camera of FIGS. 1 and/or 2

FIG. 3B shows schematically an example of nine possible positions of the camera aperture relative to the image sensor, corresponding to nine different frames captured by a camera of FIGS. 1 and/or 2;

FIG. 3C shows schematically an example of three possible positions of the camera aperture relative to the image sensor, corresponding to three different frames captured by a camera of FIGS. 1 and/or 2;

FIG. 4 shows in a flow chart stages of an exemplary method that uses a synthetically increased camera aperture to obtain a shallow DOF and improved SNR.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIGS. 1A-C show an exemplary embodiment of a camera 100 exhibiting a synthetically enlarged camera aperture disclosed herein. Camera 100 can be exemplary an upright camera. Camera 100 comprises a lens 104 and an image sensor 106. Camera 100 may further comprise other elements which are not shown for simplicity and are known in the art, such as: protective shield, infra-red (IR) filter, focusing mechanism (e.g. actuator), electrical connectivity, etc. Lens 104 may be for example a fixed-focal-length-lens, characterized by an effective-focal-length (EFL), and an aperture 102. Aperture 102 defines the aperture of camera 100, and the two terms (camera aperture and lens aperture) are used herein interchangeably. The ratio between the EFL and the lens aperture diameter is known as the camera or lens “f-number”. For example, the EFL of lens 104 may be in the range of 3-15 mm. For example, the diameter of aperture 102 may be in the range of 1-6 mm. For example, the f-number of lens may be in the range of 1.2-3.2. However, all these exemplary numbers (EFL, aperture diameter, f-numbers) are not limiting. Camera 100 also comprises a first actuator, which is not shown in the figures. The first actuator may move (shift, actuate) lens 104 and aperture 102 with respect to image sensor 106 in the X-Y plane (parallel to the image sensor plane). Camera 100 may also include a second actuator (not shown) which may move (shift, actuate) lens 104 in the Z direction with respect to image sensor 106 for focusing purposes. In an example embodiment, the first actuator used for moving the lens may shift the lens in the X-Y plane, with a moving range on the order of ±2 mm along each axis. The first and/or second actuators may be similar in structure to actuators used in a non-folded compact camera for OIS but with a significantly increased range, from (typically) a few hundreds of microns to an order of +/−2 mm along each axis. In some embodiments, the first and/or second actuator may be not similar to an OIS actuator. The following non-limiting description gives an example with the use of modified OIS actuators, with the underling understanding that other methods of actuations may be used. The significantly increased movement range may be achieved by using current and known OIS technology (for example ball-bearing voice coil motor (VCM) technology), with larger magnets and coils and with longer rails, which allows a larger range of movement (e.g. in a range ±1-2 mm range of movement). Other actuation methods may also be applied, providing the lens can be shifted with the specified range with respect to the sensor (e.g. stepper motors, piezoelectric motors, shape memory alloy (SMA) actuators, etc.).

Returning now to FIGS. 1A-C, each figure shows the lens and lens aperture position vs. the image sensor from, respectively, a top view (a) and a schematic side view or 3D rendering (b). FIG. 1A shows upright camera 100 with aperture 102 and lens 104 centered vs. image sensor 106 in an “original position”. FIGS. 1B and 1C show camera 100 with aperture 102 and lens 104 shifted respectively in (a) in a first direction (+X) and in (b) in a second direction (−Y) relative to image sensor 106 (i.e. shifted in two orthogonal directions vs. an optical axis 110 parallel to the Z direction, along which light enters the lens toward image sensor 106). The shift of the lens from its original position in FIGS. 1B and 1C can be in the range of a few mm, for example 2 mm. The two positions in FIGS. 1B and 1C are only an example, and other shift directions and positions are also possible in the X-Y plane, for example −X shift, +Y shift and a shift in a combined X and Y directions. In particular, note that while shift directions described herein are orthogonal to each other, in some embodiments shifts may occur in directions that are not orthogonal to other shift directions.

FIGS. 2A-D show an exemplary embodiment of a folded camera 200 exhibiting a synthetically enlarged camera aperture disclosed herein. Each figure shows the aperture and lens position vs. the image sensor from, respectively, a top view (a) and a schematic side view or 3D rendering (b). Camera 200 includes a camera aperture 202, a lens 204, an image sensor 206 and an OPFE (for example a prism) 208. Like camera 100, camera 200 may include other elements not shown, for simplicity, and are known in the art. FIG. 2A shows the “original position” of camera aperture 202, centered on a first optical axis 210. In the folded camera, light entering the lens along first optical axis 210 is folded to continue along a second optical axis 212 toward image sensor 206. FIG. 2B shows lens 204 shifted relative to image sensor 206 in a first (e.g. +Y) direction. FIG. 2C shows camera aperture 202 and prism 208 shifted relative to lens 204 in a second direction (e.g. −X) which is orthogonal to the first direction. FIG. 2D shows lens 204 shifted relative to image sensor 206 in a third direction (e.g. +Z). The motion direction shown in FIG. 2B-2D are only an example, and other shift direction may exist, in particular any linear combination of the shift directions shown.

In FIG. 2B, the lens is moved in a direction similar to that in FIG. 1B. In FIG. 2C, the lens is stationary, but the prism moves to create the same optical affect as in FIG. 1C. In FIG. 2D, the lens moves in a third direction, resulting in an optical effect similar to that in FIG. 2C.

An actuator (not shown) as disclosed in co-owned published international patent applications WO2016166730 (folded) and WO20160156996 (non-folded), may be modified to increase the movement (range) of the lens barrel from a few hundreds of microns to a movement on the order of ±2 mm, to enable shifting the aperture and/or lens along a first direction. The prism may be moved in a second direction, to bring it closer or further away from the edge of the lens, thus also shifting the camera aperture. In other words, in the exemplary coordinate systems shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a “longer range” modified OIS actuator can shift the lens and camera aperture by up to about ±2 mm in the X-Y directions in a non-folded camera, and by up to about ±2 mm in the X-Y directions or in Y-Z directions in a folded camera. The prism can be moved for example using the same technology that is used to move the lens, but in a range that positions the prism closer/farther from the edge of the lens.

An exemplary method that uses a synthetically increased camera aperture to obtain a shallow DOF and improved SNR is provided with reference to FIG. 4. The exemplary method can be performed, for example, with a camera similar to camera 100 or camera 200:

Acquisition stage (FIG. 4, step 402): a plurality N of images of the same scene is acquired in rapid succession (for example in 10-50 ms per image, to prevent a significant object movement during the acquisition process) when moving the position of the aperture between images, so that each image is captured when the aperture is at a different position. In an example of an exposure rate of 10-60 ms, N would typically be in the range of 3-9 frames. In an example of high illumination conditions, a high frame rate may be obtained such that N may be on the order of a few tens or even a few hundreds of frames.

FIG. 3A shows schematically an example of N=5 possible positions 302-310 of the aperture relative to image sensor 106, corresponding to N=5 different frames captured by the camera (e.g. camera 100 or 200). In other examples, N may differ from 5. FIG. 3B shows schematically an example of N=9 possible positions 312-328 of the aperture relative to image sensor 106, corresponding to N=9 different frames captured by the camera (e.g. camera 100 or 200). FIG. 3C shows schematically an example of N=3 possible positions 330-334 of the aperture relative to image sensor 106, corresponding to N=3 different frames captured by the camera (e.g. camera 100 or 200).

In an embodiment, the first or second actuator may be a closed loop actuator, such that a position indication and a settling (i.e. arrival of the actuator to the target position) indication may be provided to the camera. In an embodiment, the exposure of the camera maybe synchronized with the motion of the actuator, such that the sequence of N frames acquisition may be constructed from a repetitive stage of (1) frame exposure, (2) actuator motion to a new position, (3) actuator settling. Actuator settling may be such that the actuator does not shift the lens during exposure by more than 1 pixel, 2 pixels or 5 pixels.

Processing Stage: This Stage Includes Three Steps:

a) Frame stack alignment (FIG. 4, step 404): continuing the example in step 402, the N (e.g. 5) frames are aligned according to a certain region of interest (ROI). Alignment may be performed using several methods. According to one example, a known frame alignment procedure such as image registration can be used. According to a second example, frames may be aligned by calculating the expected image shift resulted from known lens or prism shift. According to a third example, data from an inertial measurement system (e.g. a gyroscope accelerometer) may be used to calculate image shift caused by camera handshakes. Lastly, a combination of some or all the alignments above may be used. The ROI may be the same ROI that was used to determine the focus of the camera, may be an ROI indicated by a user via a user-interface, or may be chosen automatically, by detecting the position of an object of interest (for example, a face, detected by known face-detection methods) in the image and by choosing the ROI to include that object of interest. The alignment may compensate for image shifts. The alignment may also include distortion correction that can be introduced by the shifting of the aperture. The alignment may include shifting the images, or may include cropping the images around some point, which may not be the center point of the image. After the alignment, all objects positioned in the same focus plane that corresponds to the object in the chosen ROI are aligned between the frames. Objects at distances outside that plane are misaligned. b) Frame averaging—(FIG. 4, step 406) the frames are averaged together, using for example a known procedure. In this averaging process, pixels that belong to aligned objects will not suffer any blur in the averaging (i.e. the resulting object in the output image will look the same as in any of the captured images, only with better SNR (approximately increased by a factor IN, where N is the number of averaged images), while pixels that belong to misaligned objects will be averaged with misaligned pixels and will therefore suffer blurring and will appear blurred in the output image. The blurring of object outside the focus plane will result in a shallower DOF, resulting DOF may be shallower by 10%, 20% or 50% than the original DOF (of a single frame). The same effect occurs optically when the lens has a much larger aperture—the object that is in the focus plane (i.e. in the depth position where the lens is focused at) is sharp, and objects in out-of-focus planes (i.e. outside the depth position where the lens is focused at) are blurry. Therefore, the proposed system synthetically enlarges the aperture. According to some example the system may discard some of the N frames, such that discarded frames are not included in the averaging. Discarding frames can be done for example due to blurry images, mis-focus of ROI, etc. c) Post processing (FIG. 4, step 408): extra stages of processing such as refinement of the blur, adding additional blur, sharpening, etc., may be applied on the synthetically-increased-camera-aperture output image, using for example a known procedure. The output of the camera may include one or all of the original N frames in addition to the synthetically-increased-camera-aperture output image.

Processing steps 404-408 may be performed immediately after frame acquisition step 402, or at later time. Processing steps 404-408 may be done in the host device (e.g. in the host CPU, GPU etc.), or outside the host device (e.g. by cloud computing).

The added blur for objects outside the chosen plane of focus (defined by the object in the chosen ROI) will result in a shallow DOF effect in the output image, compared with any of the images in the stack (the input image to the algorithm). On the focused objects, the averaging of frames will result in better signal to noise ratio compared with any of the images in the stack.

While this disclosure describes a limited number of embodiments, it will be appreciated that many variations, modifications and other applications of such embodiments may be made. In general, the disclosure is to be understood as not limited by the specific embodiments described herein, but only by the scope of the appended claims.

All references mentioned in this specification are herein incorporated in their entirety by reference into the specification, to the same extent as if each individual reference was specifically and individually indicated to be incorporated herein by reference. In addition, citation or identification of any reference in this application shall not be construed as an admission that such reference is available as prior art to the present application. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A method, comprising: in a camera that includes a camera aperture, an image sensor and an actuator, operating the actuator to move the camera aperture relative to the image sensor to a plurality of different aperture positions; capturing a plurality of images, wherein each image of the plurality of images is captured at a respective different camera aperture position; and processing the plurality of images into a single image that exhibits a shallow depth of focus effect.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the actuator is an optical image stabilization (OIS) actuator.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein each image capture includes a respective camera exposure synchronized with a respective camera aperture movement.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the actuator is a closed-loop actuator and wherein the method further comprises providing an aperture position and a settling indication.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the capturing of each of the plurality of images includes performing a sequence of frame exposure, movement of the actuator to a new position and actuator settling.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the camera is a folded camera.
 7. The method of claim 2, wherein the camera is a non-folded camera.
 8. The method of claim 2, wherein the OIS actuator has an extended actuation range.
 9. The method of claim 8, wherein the extended actuation range includes a range of up to ±2 mm.
 10. The method of claim 9, wherein the extended actuation range is between ±1-2 mm.
 11. A camera, comprising: a camera aperture; an image sensor; and an actuator operative to move the camera aperture relative to the image sensor to a plurality of different aperture positions, wherein the camera is operative to capture a plurality of images, wherein each image of the plurality of images is captured at a respective different aperture position, and to process the plurality of images into a single image that exhibits a shallow depth of focus effect.
 12. The camera of claim 11, wherein the actuator is an optical image stabilization (OIS) actuator.
 13. The camera of claim 11, wherein the actuator is a closed-loop actuator and wherein the method further comprises providing an aperture position and a settling indication.
 14. The camera of claim 11, wherein the camera is a folded camera.
 15. The camera of claim 11, wherein the camera is a non-folded camera.
 16. The camera of claim 12, wherein the OIS actuator has an extended actuation range.
 17. The method of claim 16, wherein the extended actuation range includes a range of up to ±2 mm.
 18. The method of claim 17, wherein the extended actuation range is between ±1-2 mm. 